Put some respect on Dan Novaes’ name, the new age entrepreneur behind Current
The cryptocurrency craze has taken the world by storm, but what does the future hold for the volatile digital dollar?
Entrepreneur, speaker and life hacker, Daniel Novaes has the answer.
Through his blockchain enabled multimedia ecosystem called Current, Novaes and his team hopes to reward people with a digital token called CRNC for their time, data, and attention.
How does Current work?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dV_ydsmnh7Y
Can you stand it? There is finally an awesome multimedia platform that cares about the consumers, creators, curators, and corporations all at the same time. Plus, there is no risk as Current requires no credit card at sign up.
All there is for each Current community member is the certainty of an advantageous experience. “You choose how to stream and pay for your media.”
Sounds too good to be true? To prove that Current is the next multimedia phenomenon, Kulture Hub hit Novaes’ line. Over the phone, we discussed his roots, Current’s glow up within the crypto community, and his day-to-day grind.
From youth, Novaes always saw the business world through two lenses. He grew up in a small town in Indiana by way of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Going between both locations allowed him to see the perceived value of products from two polar opposite cultural viewpoints.
Dan explained to us how his environments had a direct effect on his current success as an entrepreneur. He said,
“Within the two polar opposite environments, you kind of saw the differences in how people see the world – what things cost, and how people act and buy. A lot of the businesses I started when I was younger, focused around that. In the sense of, ‘How much does this cost here and what is the perceived value of it there?'”
At the age of 15, Novaes started a little eBay venture with $1000 and by his freshman year of college, he turned that one grand into $2 million.
He was able to take his multicultural acumen and apply it to this tiny business giving it somewhat of a global presence. The eBay company grew faster than ever and he would soon start buying goods straight from an American source and export them to Brazil, Europe, and Australia.
Novaes was flipping so many goods that he had to set up his own warehouse in the UK through the EU. At that young age, most would throw that bread in the shredder, but wise Novaes thought differently.
He recycled the revenue and invested into the media and digital industries. While still in college, Novaes started a successful fratboy-esque website called FratStars.com where he would gain an understanding of web traffic.
From there, Novaes would tinker around with the latest technologies, sell a couple of apps, and personally invest into cryptocurrencies. All the experienced gained would eventually lead to Current’s creation. Now 29, Novaes spoke about how he got to where he is today. He said,
“This idea behind rewarding people for the data and attention when they are consuming media is a concoction of everything that I’ve done. We did high traffic websites where we learned the advertisement business very well. We did a lot of consumer-facing applications that focused on the media industry. We worked with a lot with celebrities and influencers to monetize their digital strategy.”
Novaes continued,
“I had personally been investing in cryptocurrency and following blockchain technology ever since I graduated college. Then there was a culmination between all of those different businesses that I’ve ever done over the past decade of my life or more into one thing. And that’s where I’m at today.”
By combining all of his experiences Novaes now sits on top of the world
Current is ingenious, right with the times, and has set a precedent for how we are to consume media. In fact, it rewards you for actions that you do every day. Novaes even thinks that Current’s tokenized model will be intercepted by the next Facebooks and Netflixes of the world.
Since its conceptualization two years ago, Current has managed to cultivate 200,000 community members and counting, seed investments from sharks like Mark Cuban, and successfully raised a $36 million token sale in early 2018.
Novaes spoke on what it feels like to be apart of one the first consumer-facing blockchain technologies in the world. He said,
“It’s crazy, to be honest. It’s almost hard to believe how much interest that we got and generated. In the sense that we had over 250,000 people sign up to be apart of our token sale within three or four weeks. Then we had $150 million in private scale interests and that’s insane. I was getting 600 emails a day where people were trying to give me anything between $100,000 and $10 million. It’s just fucking crazy… At the same time, the real work starts now because now we have to execute on everything that we promised.”
The grind starts now
Novaes applies a calculative mindset to his hustle and he uses “time as a metric.” Time is where he directs his attention and purpose. Every breath counts to him and his 10K80 is worth emulating.
He spends his weeks nowadays trying to stay focused. He thinks individuals should focus their energy on things that have the most promise, and that if it doesn’t have promise then fail quickly and move on. Over the phone, Novaes explained,
“The biggest mistake that I’ve made in my whole life, that I corrected last year, is not being focused enough. Not that I’m lazy, but when you’re not focused on one specific task you become scatterbrained, you spread yourself thin, and then you’re not able to do anything great… I’ve never done something truly exceptional where it impacted one billion people or it created a billion dollars worth a value…”
Novaes is using his 10k80 to “plant a tree so others can enjoy the shade”
This man is not only grinding for himself but for the global community. With that said, Novaes ended our phone conversation with a little piece of advice for all the young entrepreneurs out there.
“If you’re afraid to fail you’re fucked… If you fail you don’t die, no one dies. If you act in that manner, care about what you’re doing, and know that every failure is a learning opportunity then you’ll operate in a much better fashion because you’ll take risks. Too many people have analysis paralysis.”